Canucks Insider Tweets Luongo to the Leafs

The rumor mill is once again swirling in regards to Roberto Luongo. An infamous Canucks insider tweeter has let slip that Luongo’s deal to Toronto is 90% complete. Not only that, but it will be ready to go come July 1st for free agency or at the draft (June 22nd).

Before we hit the analysis, here is a quick rundown of @samjam99‘s credentials:

“He first gained notoriety when he was the first to accurately state that the Canucks were going to file tampering charges against Ron Wilson and the Leafs over their Sedin twins comments in the summer of 09. In the fall of 2011, he was thirty minutes ahead of TSN on the exact particulars of the David Booth for Marco Sturm and Mikael Samuelsson swap. In February of 2012 he beat TSN by a similar margin with again, the exact particulars of the buzzer-beating Hodgson for Kassian trade on trade deadline day.Again, this isn’t some dude guessing about what the Canucks are going to do, this is a kid who had Sulzer and Hodgson heading to Buffalo in exchange for Gragnani and Kassian thirty minutes before any mainstream outlets were reporting it. He correctly had Sulzer in the trade damn it – so you know he wasn’t just guessing.”

Head to the net also feels that samjam99 is a reliable source (for the same reasons):

Who’s @samjam99, you ask? Well, he’s my source and I know him personally. Who’s his source, you ask? Unfortunately he won’t say, but that’s his decision.

Here are a couple of reasons we might believe him:

– Ten minutes before Bob McKenzie announced the Cody Hodgson for Zack Kassian trade, @samjam99 tweeted it was going to happen.

– Twenty minutes before Darren Dreger announced that the Canucks had traded for David Booth, @samjam99 tweeted it

At this point, either you believe him or you don’t. But before you rule out the rumor as just that, it’s important to take a look at extenuating factors.

– Most importantly, it makes sense. With Yzerman claiming to be out of the picture, there aren’t too many teams left on the list of teams Luongo is willing to open his no-trade clause for. Luongo is also from Quebec, and Toronto is as close to home as he can get in Canada short of playing for the Habs (who have no need for a starting goalie).

– Another little tidbit is that the Leafs will be on HBO this coming season and get to play in the Winter Classic, which is a bit of a draw for any player. It may not have played into the desire to go to Toronto, but it couldn’t have hurt.

– Last but not least, the Canucks trading Luongo feels somewhat inevitable as holding onto two starting goalies and running around $9 million dollars in net is just impractical, despite Gillis saying he sees it as an option come next season (in my opinion, this was just him trying to play his cards close to the chest).